Rangers Run Way Out of Win

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That's how many outs on the bases the Texas Rangers ended the season with on Monday night after Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler both were picked off at first base to cap off a season during which they were both near the top of the league in the dubious category.

The Rangers were behind the 8-ball from the get-go against the Rays thanks to a stellar outing from David Price, who overcame his personal demons in Arlington to send the Rangers home for the winter.

But their base-running blunders early in the game certainly didn't help matters, beginning in the first inning.

Elvis Andrus drew a walk and then was promptly picked off by Price with a questionable assist from first baseman James Loney, who shrewdly blocked Andrus' path back to first with his right foot. Within the rules? Who knows. It was questionable, but give Loney credit for a huge play.

Kinsler was later picked off at first, afterward saying he was just trying to make something happen. Hard to blame him there, but the execution was just not there.

"Elvis got blocked by Loney," Kinsler told ESPNDallas.com of Andrus' first-inning mistake. "It was 0-2 on [Alex] Rios [when] Kinsler was picked off in the third inning], so I was going to try to take the bag there and either let Rios drive me in or let him start the next inning off. And I got caught. It was early in the game, and I was trying to take a chance there.

"Those two plays weren't [Price's pickoff] move. They were circumstances of the game."

The aggressive nature of the Rangers' running game was the result of a depleted offense this year. It might have been frustrating, but it was necessary. With aggressiveness comes outs from time to time, and they just happened to come in the biggest game of the year on Monday.

"That's the way we play," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Sometimes, that's the result of it, but if everything would have worked the way we wanted it to when they decided to steal, it would have been nice. It just didn't work that way. That's what you have to put up with when you are aggressive. We're a very aggressive team, and we never stop."